No complaints from Ducks about more practice time

ANAHEIM – Professional hockey players are so masterful at their craft it’s hard to believe that a sudden dearth of practice time would have any tangible effect on their ability to perform proficiently.

The Ducks won 30 of 48 games and the Pacific Division title in the lockout-shortened 2012 season, for example, without any semblance of a training camp or preseason schedule.

It was the franchise’s second division championship and first since the Stanley Cup season of 2006-07.

Still, recurrent success on the ice without organized practices and/or exhibition games appears to be more the exception than the rule.

“You practice like you play,” said right wing Corey Perry. “The more practice time you get, the better you are with your systems – power plays, penalty kills, whatever it may be.

“Those are things we work on every single day, and you keep nailing it into the stone.”

A typical preseason also provides coaches the ability to tinker with potential lines, formations and set plays.

Even if neither the player personnel nor the coaching staff has changed substantially from the year before.

“You had four days (before last season),” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “Everything was ‘Do it right this time. We’re only doing it once, and then in the game you’re going to have to learn. Then, you’re going to have to learn as you go.’

“Now, we’re doing things in camp that are repetitive, and we’re doing them until we get them right.”

Said Perry: “If you’re trying to cram everything in, then your brain is going a million miles a minute. That’s not how you play hockey. When you’re playing your best hockey, you’re slowing everything down to your pace. You see the game, you see everything.”

COMEBACK KIDS

The Ducks made a habit of playing from behind in 2012.

Half of their 30 regular-season wins, in fact, were a product of overcoming a deficit.

Consecutive come-from-behind victories over San Jose and Colorado this preseason have Coach Bruce Boudreau pleased, if not entirely satisfied.

“We’d like to be able to jump into the lead one of these days,” Boudreau said. “But it’s not like we’re getting down two, three goals and having to come back.

“We’re down one goal. And one goal in hockey can mean a lot. But anytime you get a shot, you can tie (the score) up and be equal. … It’s just the same group that was resilient last year.”

WRAPPING UP

The Ducks (3-1) have three more preseason games before the puck drops on the 2013 season.

Colorado visits Honda Center Sunday at 5 p.m. The Kings then host the Ducks on Tuesday before San Jose heads to Anaheim for Saturday’s preseason finale.

“The tempo increases every day,” Perry said. “Guys are getting back into their routines. It’s still a grind, though. You still have to push through (the preseason).

“It’s good to see everybody back having fun and laughing. You get to bond with your teammates that much more before the season starts.”